Some of you have complained that the ringtones are nice, but not loud enough. Well…I fixed that little problem. 😀 These things now generate enough oomph to make your Android or iPhone scream with… er… well… something.

Additionally, the new versions should be compatible with more brands of phones. (Some didn’t seem to want to play well with the high res audio we try to provide.) Again; should be better now.

So if you haven’t already done so, please show your support and try out one of our snazzy ringtones.

Next time your phone rings, bystanders will hear those sounds and surely think something very special is going on in your pocket.

I want to apologise for the past few days of graphical mayhem on the site. I think the storm is mostly over. It’s not the result of any nefarious doings or some vast interweb meltdown. Nope. Just me dickin’ around.

As some of you are aware, I am constantly making small changes to the web site. I try to ‘slipstream’ these so that they are largely unnoticeable as they happen, but over time the site slowly morphs. And all the while, I try to keep ‘the brand’ consistent.

And then there is the occasional tweak that has, what they call over at BP Oil ahem ‘unintended consequences’. And then what you end up with is, as they say in the old country: A lotta tsuris is what you’ve got mine friend.

OK, maybe they say only that in the circumcised bits of Ireland.

Just so ya know… I keep trying to make the site easier to use for people with disabilities and small displays such as iPhone users. (One might say that many of […]

Been doing a lot of dance gigs recently—building the ol’ chops to play live again. And I’ve been wondering about why people dance to some songs and not others. There are lots of songs that we’ll play that are just slammin’ but the dancers? Ho humsville. Then other songs, that everyone in the band feels totally ambivalent about? The dancers lose their minds. There is a middle-aged stampede to hump the stuffed tiger. (Don’t ask.)

Now you could say that the above situation is because ‘the band’ likes songs that are more musically interesting than the dancers, but this is only partly true. Though I would agree that there sure is some perverse (and inverse) correlation between musical quality and general dance-ability, this is not always for certain; not by a country mile. In fact, I can’t figure it out. All I can say about it is this metaphor:

I’ve railed against Lady Gaga’s lack of musicality before. But since then I’ve learned something else: people think she’s seriously hot. […]

…You know what I mean?

This is an update on my paltry marketing efforts.

Click Throughs

1. The adverts have changed a bit as you may have noticed. I am continuing to expend a certain amount of energy generating various ‘click-throughs’ to get a penny or two whenever y’all go to and fro over the vast InterWeb using my site links as your gateway. One way to think of these is like those product placements one sees now in every TV show and movie. But unlike those, it is very important to me that these be innocuous. The best response I could get to this news is “what are you talking about?” If you aren’t noticing anything different, then, in the immortal words of Emily Litella?

Never mind.

(BTW: For an example, if you just watched that clip, I just made me a whole 0.5¢ He shoots. He scores!)

Adverts

2. I’ve re-jiggered the adverts on the blog. There’s now no way to avoid ’em. Sorry. I need the dough. Until the ratio of downloads […]

Over the next few weeks things may look a bit funky on the JCHMusic web site. And not necessarily in a good way. But, like that peasant who got turned into a newt in Monty Python’s Holy Grail? It’ll get better.

The reason for all the transmogrification is that I’m converting the site over to be ‘standards compliant’. That means that all the pages will function as the governing bodies of the almighty interweb intend. (You can get more info on what those ‘standards’ are here, but I must warn you; it’s about as interesting for the layperson as watching paint dry.

In any case, the benefits of this re-design will be:
1. Much faster response–even if you’re still using dial-up (boy am I sorry for you.)
2. A much more consistent look in all desktop browsers.
3. Reasonable presentation in all those new-fangled smartphones, Zunes and iPods.
4. Section 508 compliance.

That last one has a certain relevance for me and is the main reason I’m putting us all through this.

About 18 months ago […]